Plastic fasteners or elastic staples having a flexible filament connecting enlarged side members thereof are becoming increasingly popular alternatives for attachment and securing a variety of different articles, particularly in retail and other, similar applications. For example, it has now become common for plastic fasteners to be used to attach product labels, price tags or other materials to fabric materials such as garments and apparel items. Alternatively, plastic fasteners are used as a means of securing a product or item to a hang tag or similar packaging without having to fully encapsulate the product within the packaging. Plastic or elastic fasteners can enable the products to be securely fastened to product packaging or tags without the risk of injury or damage to the product from the use of metal staples having sharp edges. In addition, the cost of the plastic fasteners typically is substantially less than other packaging methods such as metal staples, cable ties and/or twist ties.
Such plastic fasteners generally are applied or inserted using a fastener dispensing tool or system. Such fastener dispensing systems include hand operating tools, often referred to as “tagging guns,” and automated stapling equipment which feed and cut the fasteners from a continuously connected fastener stock supply to a needle assembly for insertion of the fasteners into an article, such as an article of clothing, etc. For example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,039,078 and 4,121,487 illustrate continuously connected fastener stocks and systems for dispensing plastic fasteners from such fastener stock. As indicated in these patents, the fastener stock generally is formed with a ladder-like structure including elongated side members with filaments extending therebetween at spaced intervals. The fastener stock generally can be fed or wound about a supply roll and will be fed by a feed mechanism to the needle assembly of the fastener dispensing system, whereupon the fasteners will be separated or cut away from the stock and inserted into the article.
In conventional systems, the feed mechanism for feeding the fastener stock to the needle assembly of the fastener dispensing system generally comprises a feed wheel or similar rotary mechanism that engages the filaments extending between the side members and pulls or urges the fastener stock forwardly to feed a next fastener into the needle assembly for cutting and insertion. Such rotary feed systems, however, typically can be somewhat bulky and can create variation in a cut location. The filaments of the fastener stock typically have a desired amount of elasticity or flexibility and thus can stretch or expand by varying amounts as the filaments are engaged by the feed wheel, causing a variation or difference in the distance that the fastener stock is pulled forward. Thus, a variation or inconsistency is created in the cut location for successive fasteners cut from the fastener stock. These inconsistencies or variation in the location at which the fasteners are cut or severed from their fastener stock leads to inconsistent and reduced sizes of the side members of the plastic fasteners that in turn can lead to improper retention of the fastener in use. Such rotating feed wheel systems also can be somewhat complex and expensive in operation.
Accordingly, it can be seen that a need exists for a fastener and fastener stock system that addresses the foregoing and other related and unrelated problems in the art.